Economy

Too often, we confuse ends with means. One of the criticisms of our economies in the years prior to the crisis is that they did exactly that – a financial sector is a means to a more productive economy, not an end in itself.

Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel Prize- winning economist, said the U.S. has failed to fix the underlying problems of its banking system after the credit crunch and the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.

“In the U.S. and many other countries, the too-big-to-fail banks have become even bigger,” Stiglitz said in an interview today in Paris. “The problems are worse than they were in 2007 before the crisis.”

Stiglitz’s views echo those of former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, who has advised President Barack Obama’s administration to curtail the size of banks,

It’s hard to believe now, but not long ago economists were congratulating themselves over the success of their field. Those successes — or so they believed — were both theoretical and practical, leading to a golden era for the profession…

…Few economists saw our current crisis coming, but this predictive failure was the least of the field’s problems. More important was the profession’s blindness to the very possibility of catastrophic failures in a market economy.

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BELONGINGLASVEGAS.ORG…

...was created by independent producer Adam Burke, as an online lily pad for stories about people living in southern Nevada. Belonging Las Vegas is a collaboration between Adam Burke and Nevada Public Radio. The project started out as a series of radio stories documenting community life in southern Nevada.

This time around, we're bringing you voices and faces: how people, families, and neighborhoods are faring in the worst economic downtown in Las Vegas' hundred year history. It's a story of hardship and challenge to be sure, but also one of generosity, innovation and reckoning.